Al-astamani - Trust
by Mini Goat
Summary: Jon has reservations about meeting Sammy's foster parents but nothing prepares him for what he walks into when he goes to their house for the first time.


_AN: This could go so many ways and honestly I haven't figured out which yet. It won't be a teen angst story generally and I'm not going to try to tie it into the short story or e-novel that are canon. Just adults trying to figure out how to navigate being teens emotiaonally without giving too much away about who they really are. Any future stories will continue to have light tie in to SG1 characters from time to time. Set approximately one week after __**Mahbub**_

**Trust – Al-astamani**

Jon had a single weakness. Ok two if you count the chocolate cake thing but really, who doesn't love cake? Jon's real weakness was Sammy's eyes. All it took was that pleading look in them and he'd do anything she wanted him to do. Like yesterday when she'd shown up in his study period, bribed him with red Jello and asked him very sweetly to come to her foster parent's house on a night he didn't have hockey practice. Then she'd given him that look. That one she used that said I'll adore you forever if you do this one thing for me and damned if he wouldn't.

"Jon, it's important. They need to know you aren't some creep trying to take advantage of me." Sammy had said.

He wiggled his eyebrows "They aren't far off." He'd grinned suggestively and she had giggled.

"Stop being a dirty old man and meet my foster parents so we can do things together without them freaking out. They're super nice and they actually care or I'd just sneak out."

"You mean like you did out of class to ask me to come over instead of just sending a text?"

"I can't bribe you with Jello in a text Jon." She held the treat just out of his reach. "Please Jon. It's important."

"Trying to study here Carter." He said with fake exasperation. Trying to ignore the plea in her eyes.

"Cut it out or I'll start calling you sir." She glared at him.

He shuddered. "Ok ok. I'll go and pretend I'm a nice charming kid." He'd rolled his eyes.

"Thank you Jooonnn…" and she'd handed over his Jello and kissed his cheek. "Gotta sneak back into Trig. See you after school."

"Yah. Great." But she was already gone.

Zulfie who shared his study hour had been watching them thoughtfully. "Sup with the crack about calling you sir?"

Aw crap Jon thought "Her aunt calls my uncle that when she's mad. Has for years. It's gotten to be a running joke."

"Why?" Z asked him in a sing song voice.

"Military crap. She used to serve under him and generally called him sir fifty times a day on average."

"Ok…?"

"She did it to irritate him mostly. They were really good friends and he never cared about rank." Which, he hadn't. The Air Force did but the Air Force could kick rocks.

Zulfie nodded. Made sense to him.

* * *

The next Thursday which Jon found uniquely ironic he found himself outside a pretty yellow sided two story with light grey brick and green shutters. He could hear piano music and suspected Sammy might be practicing. Gershwin. Cool. Rhapsody in Blue. One of his favorites. He found himself humming along as he walked up the front porch steps that were framed by a pair of Japanese maples that were currently a bright autumn red. He juggled the flowers in his hands and rang the doorbell.

A five foot nothing middle aged brunette with her lightly silvered hair in a braided bun answered the door. "You must be Jon. Come on in. Sammy is in the living room practicing as I'm sure you heard." She grinned at him and her blue eyes sparkled. Her feet were bare.

Jon grinned back. "ah, these are for you." He said holding out the daises. "Sammy said they were one of your favorites."

"Well that's very sweet of both of you. Daises remind me of my mom. Come on in Jon." She backed away so he could enter the foyer and took the flowers once he was inside. "Living room is on the left. Piano is in the back. I'll go put these in water. Bathroom is through the great room behind the garage. I'm Mary in case Sammy forgot to tell you though there's not much that girl forgets to tell anyone. I bet you already knew that though didn't you."

Mary laughed at her own joke and Jon found himself laughing with her. "Not much no ma'am." He said grinning.

"Military brats. Can't break my boys of calling every woman Ma'am either. I guess there are worse habits."

"Do I need to take my shoes off Ma'am?"

"I'd appreciate that dear. I'm not exactly base housing clean these days but I'd rather not sweep more than I have to if you catch my drift."

"Yah, I'm not such a great housekeeper myself." He said ruefully.

"I've yet to meet a boy your age who is dear. I raised two of them." She grinned as she reached for a vase on the top shelf just past her fingertips. Jon automatically reached past her and handed it down to her. "Thank you." She turned away so he missed her satisfied smile. "Sammy speaks very highly of you Jon. I hear you're quite good at hockey?"

"Yup. JV star forward. I've got a good team though so it's easy to be good at what I do."

She nodded then looked at him thoughtfully. "You'll make a good officer one day if you decide to go into the military."

"I'd like to go into the academy after I graduate." He told her. Gershwin continued to lilt out from the back of the house.

"I don't know, my husband is pretty persuasive. He might talk you into the Corps." She smirked.

"Not a chance ma'am. My grandfather and uncle would probably shoot me."

Mary laughed, delighted. "My boys have a grandfather just like yours."

Jon grinned. "Mind if I…"

"Oh! Yes of course! You two must really be enjoying going to the same school now."

"We aren't in any of the same classes or lunch periods so we don't see each other much unfortunately."

"We'll have to make sure you get time otherwise then. Childhood friendship should be treasured." Jon blushed a little and she smiled. "Go hang out with Sammy. You're not here to see me." She gave him a little nudge.

"Yes Ma'am." And he followed the sounds of Rhapsody in Blue.

* * *

He came up behind her and she was so focused she didn't even hear him. For a while he just listened while he watched her. She played beautifully. He'd have to tell Jack to get Sam a piano when they finally settled into a single household.

Her fingers stilled as the last strains of the song ended. "Hello Jon."

"You knew I was here?"

She turned and regarded him levelly. "Indeed."

Jon snorted. "Smart.."

"Ah!"

"Alic."

"Yah right."

They laughed together. "Met your foster mom. She's nice. I like her."

"I told you that you would. You should always trust my opinion on everything." She smirked.

"What about your opinion on football?"

"It's boring."

"Guess you won't be joining the guys for game day at Brian's parent's house then."

"Not a chance. I'd rather learn how to play 90s boy band music."

"Ew."

"Exactly. OH! Did you bring Mary some daises?"

"I did and I helped her get down a vase."

"See, I know you could be charming and well mannered."

"Hey!"

She poked his side. "You're too easy to tease now. I should have started picking on you a lot sooner."

"Great. That's what I need. A pipsqueak giving me crap all the time." He laughed.

"I'll tell Jack you're being mean to me."

"You do and I'll tell Sam you cut class."

"I do not!"

"She doesn't know that." He said laughing.

"You're such a jerk." But she was laughing too hard to say much more. "Do you want to meet my foster dad?"

"Sure." He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"He doesn't bite."

"Did I say I was nervous?"

"You stuffed your hands in your pockets."

"So."

"So you do that when you're nervous."

"I do not."

"You totally do."

"Not."

"Do." She said firmly as she steered him up the staircase that was lined with family photos, a framed folded flag, and a couple military portraits that she explained her foster parent's son had painted of her foster dad and his step father.

They were still bickering good naturedly at the top of the stairs when she directed him to a French door that opened to an office directly above the foyer. She gently rapped her knuckles on the open door. "Enter." Came a warm male voice Jon vaguely recognized.

"Uncle Wilson, this is my friend Jon from school."

"Very nice to meet you sir." Jon said to the late middle aged man sitting in an exceedingly comfortable looking leather chair reading a science fiction novel. "uncle?" he mouthed to Sammy. She shrugged.

"Sammy wasn't comfortable calling us mom and dad or by our given names so we settled on aunt and uncle." The older man grinned as he put a mark in his book and set it on the doughboy table next to his chair. The wall to the left of him and behind him were shelved floor to ceiling and were filled with books. Mostly novels but a lot of history was mixed in too.

"You read a lot sir?" Jon asked politely.

"Wife and I both do. She's the intellectual one so all the Asimov and science books are hers. I prefer figuring out the sociology so I stick to novels. I don't enjoy thinking that hard when I want to relax frankly."

Jon snorted and gave Sammy a pointed look that Wilson caught and chuckled.

"I agree. They get on like gas and matches. Go practice some more Sammy. Jon and I need to have a talk."

"Yes sir." She said reluctantly, giving Jon a wary look but left as ordered.

"Close the door son." Wilson told him and Jon involuntarily gulped as he followed orders and stood on the vintage blue Persian style rug facing Sammy's foster dad. "Come have a seat." He indicated the matching leather chair to his own. They faced an impressive TV set up set into what used to be a closet. There was a vintage desk under the window facing the front yard.

Jon gingerly followed orders his stomach churning. Something was definitely 'up'. "Sir, I just want you to know Sammy is one of my oldest friends and I'd never do anything to her to hurt her."

Wilson gave him a hard look. "Care to explain to me why she has the exact same name as the top scientist at the Cheyenne facility?"

"Sir?" Jon winced imperceptibly but the older man caught it anyway. "She's named after her aunt sir."

"Colonel Carter's brother didn't name any of his kids after his sister. I checked." The pointed look her gave Jon was making him squirm slightly. Memories of Jack O'Neill aside, Jon was still physiologically and emotionally a 16 year old kid and the man's brown eyes held him like daggers.

"Um… I need to send a text.. uh.. sir." He all but ripped his phone out of his pants.

[Daniel! I need to talk to Jack RIGHT NOW]

Several minuets passed while Wilson bore holes in Jon's head.

[He's not 'here' Jon. What do you need?]

[What?! Why would they let them do that right now?!]

[Honeymoon.]

[I thought pregnant women weren't allowed to travel? When did that change?]

[It didn't they made an exception. What did you need?]

[A nondisclosure agreement.]

[You aren't telling your friends about the program Jon. That's nonnegotiable.]

[Not them. Sammy's foster dad already knows. He worked under the mountain.]

[So he's signed one already then and probably doesn't need another.]

[What about his wife?]

[Fine. I'll bring one by tomorrow for her. Kind of busy working here. Is there anything else you need?]

[Guess not. Thanks.]

[NP]

"Sooo... um…" I talked to someone about what I can say." Jon hedged.

"Not General O'Neill. He's on his honeymoon." Wilson said smugly.

"You seem to already know what's going on sir. I'm not sure what good filling you in will do."

"Humor me." He said kindly, stretching out his legs and grinning boyishly.

Something about the man suddenly rang a bell. "Sergeant Amos." Jon said incredulously.

Wilson gave him a sharp look. "So the rumors were true."

"Um… about?"

"That little incident with your diminutive grey friends."

Jon sighed. "Yah. It's true."

"So what about this other situation? They didn't lose track of their wayward scientist and have him run amok again did they?"

"No sir, it's more an insurance policy in her case."

Wilson gave him a speculative look. "You always were smarter than you let on." He grinned. "I'll assume my family being chosen for this task was not random."

"I doubt it was sir."

"Surprised you weren't filled in as a heads up though. Not like Jack to drop the ball like that."

"knowing my.. his sense of humor, he probably thought it would be funny sir."

"Sick a grumpy retired staff sergeant on his teenaged self. Yah, sounds like him all right." Wilson laughed and slapped his knee. "I'm stealing that one. I need to call my son's girlfriend's father later."

Jon chucked. "So what made you retire sir?"

"Boys are grown. Wanted to play some golf before my crap knees were too shot to enjoy it. Had a cancer scare last year and got lucky enough to survive it without a snake." They shuddered together. "Wife still works on contract for a couple more years unless you get something even better for her to reverse engineer. She's a big fan of Sam's technical reports by the way."

"They are through and have lots of big words." Jon said ruefully.

Wilson chuckled. "Yah. So I hear. She's never worked directly with her which is why she hasn't put together S. Carter with Sammy yet but she's brilliant and she will eventually on her own without me saying anything."

Jon nodded. "Jackson or an SF will be by tomorrow with a nondisclosure for her. Probably should have done that in the first place."

"What about your fosters?"

"I don't have them." Jon shrugged. In for a dime.

"Now see that doesn't track. You need adult oversight even if you technically are one mentally."

"George was taking care of it. Jack stepped in since George was promoted. I get by." He told the older man noncommentally.

Wilson gave him an unreadable look then nodded to himself as though making a decision. "You two are going to spend most of your free time together anyway. You always did on base and no one was surprised about the outcome there. Just remember the Sam downstairs won't be thirteen until December. In the mean time feel free to hang out here all you want. Mary misses the boys so she'll probably smother you a bit." His eyes bore into Jon's

Jon put up his hands in supplication. "We already had this talk. She told me to keep my hands to myself and I do what Sam tells me to do." He looked down at his socks. "Besides, by the time she's old enough to make that decision she'll probably realize I'm not the catch she thinks I am."

Wilson looked at him askance. "Never took you for having low self esteem. We should work on that. Women don't really care how smart you are so long as you don't drag your knuckles and grunt answers." He smiled. "My wife is proof women don't care about your brains. Make em laugh and have table manners and they don't even care that you can't follow a thing they are saying half the time."

Jon looked at him a little startled. Sergeant Amos had always struck him as bright but he'd not realized he was fairly deep as well. Might be something to reading science fiction novels. "So," he said seemingly changing the subject. "Which one is your favorite" he asked, waving at the shelves of books.

"All of them." Wilson said with a grin. "But I'm a big fan of Clark as a starting point. Anthony is pretty good if you like some crossover stuff and he's good at explaining the math on a level I can handle. Help yourself."

Jon nodded and picked a couple books. "I'll bring these back next week ok?"

"Sure. You can borrow a couple more after that if you want. I've read everything on the shelf, it's just collecting dust now."

Jon mentally tallied up the books. There had to be over a thousand.

"All of these?"

"Oh yah, and more that I wasn't as fond of, even the wife's science ones when I didn't feel like driving to the book store."

Now that Jon thought about it, in his memories of Jack were ones of Sergeant Amos sitting at his desk during breaks reading. Might be a good break from playing video games now and again. "All right. Thanks." He grinned.

Wilson looked at the gold watch on his wrist. "You have about half an hour before dinner. Go hang out with Sammy. There's some nice benches in the back yard in the flower garden you guys can sit on since it's one of the last nice days we'll get this year probably. Or you can hang out in the game room in the basement."

Jon nodded and stood. "Thanks for understanding sir."

"I was sixteen once too. Least I didn't have to do it twice and the least I can do is help round off any edges for you that I can. I've known my wife since we met in 65 and she was barely eighteen. My brother's wife had designs on him as kids. Some women just know exactly what they want Jon. You can't change their minds without ruining your own life so it's better just to go along with it unless you really don't love them." Wilson's eyes were softly amused. A blind man on base could see Jack loved Sam with all his heart. "Just roll with it. Women don't like complicated nearly as much as rom-coms tell them they do."

"I'll try to remember that." Jon nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him before letting out a woof of relieved stress. He wasn't sure if it was worse or better that her fosters were connected to the program or not. On the one hand it made things easier but on the other they would just automatically assume they already had long term plans and frankly, some days Jon didn't plan past breakfast. He shook his head as he walked down the oak staircase. Whatever else he and Sammy had a _lot_ to talk about. Not all of it at once although if she had her way she'd have a flow chart and a VIN diagram plotting out all their options.

He'd gone from desperately lonely to feeling like he was being lead by a carrot in the matter of a few days.. Now what was he supposed to do. He started by finding Sammy. "Hey." He said to her from the living room doorway.

"Hey yourself. Have a nice talk with uncle Wilson?"

"It was… interesting. Want to go outside for a while?"

"Sure. There's a pretty garden out back, some of the flowers are even still blooming."

"So I hear. Lets go check it out."

* * *

Mary turned to her husband while they were changing for bed. "So, what do you think of him?

"He's a good kid. Sammy needs a friend, everyone else at her school is older than her."

"I don't know why she wouldn't go to that perfectly good advanced placement school they had her signed up for. She'd fit in better there."

"She might but some things outweigh academic opportunity. Like having someone you know around."

"I guess. I'd have gone if my parents could afford it and with her stipend from their estate she can afford it."

"She's a lot less likely to be bullied with the entire JV hockey team backing her up dear. Plus they won't let her date the kind of guys that take advantage of girls like her"

"How do you mean?"

"She's trusting and kind. That's a good combination for abusive jerks to latch on to."

Mary looked at him thoughtfully. "Sounds like you speak from experience."

"Remember my cousin Carol?"

"Vaguely." She teased. Mary had a better handle on his cousins than he did.

"Nice." He said sarcastically. "That cheating bastard ex husband of hers."

"Him I remember." There was steel in her voice.

"Well, the night I came home drunk and we had that big fight was the night I told him to sign the divorce papers or I was going to make him regret setting eyes on me."

"Wil! You didn't!"

"I did and I'd do it again. Found out he was slapping her around too. That was the last straw. I'll be damned if I let Sammy be in that position and not put a stop to it."

"And you think Jon feels the same way?"

"I know he does. We had a long talk. That boy would protect her with his own life."

"You think he's sweet on her."

"Probably but it's more than that. It's his character to be that way regardless of who it is but more so if it's someone he cares about and he cares about her a lot."

She thought for a moment. "I agree. He's a good kid and he'll keep her safe. Do you think what they feel now will mature into something else?"

Wilson chuckled. "Not if you stick in your oar Mare. Leave them be. She either has a friend for life or the man of her dreams and it's up to her to decide which one she wants from him."

"And his feelings?"

"Oh he's a total gonner as Greg says." Greg was their oldest and had painted the military portraits. Asthma had kept him out of the Corps much to everyone's regret. Tim, their youngest wasn't cut out for taking orders and had started a software business.

"Was it something he said or just your gut?"

"Some of both but mostly his offhand comment that she could do better than him and would."

"I see." She chuckled. "You're right. He's a gonner. Poor kid. Did you give him a pep talk?"

"Of course. Not sure it will stick. How do you feel about us keeping an eye on him? His family all lives out of state except an uncle here."

"I didn't buy his story about his parents moving to Europe for a minuet Wil. What's really going on with him. Is he a runaway?"

"No, it's a military issue and a lot of it's classified. They are effectively out of his life and he's been living alone for a year now."

"Oh that poor boy. He must be so lonely."

"That's how I figured it too. So what do you say. Want to take in another stray?"

"I don't see why not. He needs a family to look after him and what better family than his future in-laws." She winked.

"Oh good lord what have I done." Wilson groused to the ceiling.

"Oh stop your fussing and get in bed old Mule. You can complain later." She patted the bed invitingly and he wasn't a man to turn down an invitation like that.


End file.
